A Reason to Smile
by whiteraven1606
Summary: Jim is just happy to have Spock alive.


Jim smiled as McCoy muttered to Scotty about wet cats as Spock frowned at the huge towel the rescue personnel were trying to hand him. He stepped up beside them and took the towel from the young lady. "Here, I'll take that."

She tentatively smiled for a moment before turning away to check on Uhura and Dr. Taylor who were being bundled into their own blankets and towels.

Jim moved closer to Spock and doubled up the towel before starting to rub off some of the water running down Spock's arms to drip off his fingers. "Are you alright, Mr. Spock?"

Spock's expression slipped into that slight frown he'd seemed to have worn almost non-stop since waking up on Vulcan. "Jim?"

Jim couldn't help smiling at him as he wrapped the towel around Spock's neck so the seawater would stop rolling down from Spock's hair. "Yes?"

Spock looked from his mostly dry hands to Jim and back again. "I am dripping on the dock."

"Why, yes, you are." Jim's smile widened as Spock frowned at him. "I think it comes from having been in the ocean, Mr. Spock."

Spock cocked his head. "You are...teasing me."

"Yes, that's what I'm doing." Jim eased over until he was standing at Spock's side, right where he should always be. "You usually frown a little and tell me how illogical I am, just so you know."

Spock pulled the towel a little tighter around his shoulders. "I remember."

Jim raised his eyebrows as the whole group started for the transport that was pulling up in the dock's parking area. "Do you?"

The skin around the corners of Spock's eyes tightened. "Yes, I think so."

"Is that good or bad?" Jim slowed his pace to give them a little more time before they caught up with the rest of the group. He didn't really want Leonard trying to start a bickering fest with Spock and failing again.

"It...is not logical."

Jim bit the inside of his check as Spock watched him out of the corner of his eye. "Isn't it?" He almost laughed as Spock stopped walking to turn and stare at him. "Is it not logical to repeat patterns of behavior that bring contentment to a being?"

Spock's eyes narrowed before he lifted his chin slightly and started for the transports again. "I do not see the contentment you could gain in attempting to elicit an emotional response on my part."

Jim slowly climbed into the second transport and mentally echoed Scotty's complaining about his aches and pains from their little adventure in the bay as he climbed into the first one a few meters away. "Maybe I like to see that little crease between your eyebrows when you frown at me."

Across from them, Leonard rolled his eyes. "Oh, quit pulling the poor man's pig tails, Jim."

Spock blinked at Leonard for several moments before turning his head towards Jim. "Pig...tails?"

Jim leaned his head back against the side of the transport and closed his eyes. "I'll show you a picture later, Mr. Spock." He let his shoulder touch Spock's when they were jostled as the transport turned a corner.

"Very well."

He listened to Spock remove the strip of robe that had hidden the tips of his ears while they'd been in the past. "Just so you know, Mr. Spock, it's alright if you don't regain all your memories."

Spock made a soft noise, which had Jim cracking his eyes open to look as Spock put the wet strip on the floor.

"Without the correct context I find many of my memories do not reflect logical actions on my part."

Leonard leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees with his serious listen-to-what-I'm-going-to-tell-you expression on. Jim had to close his eyes and force down the urge to snort at the image of a sopping wet Leonard attempting to explain Spock to Spock.

"Listen, Spock...Jim's asked you to do a lot of things that you had to redefine the image of a proper Vulcan in your own head to manage."

Jim's throat threatened to close up as he tried to keep pretending to be asleep.

"I have never been a proper Vulcan, Doctor."

"Oh, don't give me that. You've...No, no. I'm not going to get sucked into one of our normal arguments. What I'm getting at here, you green-blooded stubborn fool, is that you love Jim." Leonard shifted and it sounded a lot like squirming. "He loves you just as fiercely. Without you he was...Well, it was bad. Let's just go with that, shall we? I...don't remember a lot about carrying you around, but I remember your love for Jim."

"Doctor..."

"No, let me..." Leonard sighed harshly. "He feels really awkward with you up walking and talking...looking like always, but not acting it exactly. He gets comfortable with you, forgets you're still new-ish and all, says something and then gets pulled up short when you react like you would have in the first year of knowing him."

Jim kept his body soft and quiet as Spock shifted beside him.

"He insists on my calling him Jim."

"Yeah, so?"

Spock inhaled with a slight wheeze to it. "I have many memories of using the name, but there are a set I'm uncertain as to their...accuracy."

"We are checking your lungs as soon as we get into Medical. Don't think I didn't just hear you wheeze, Spock." It sounded to Jim like Leonard straightened up. "Listen, Spock, I'm your doctor and you can talk to me. I can probably tell you if those memories are something you and him would get up to. I won't tell Jim or anyone else. I won't tease you either."

Spock shifted closer and Jim had to keep himself still with all his willpower when all he really wanted was to lean against Spock's side.

"There are many where I am stroking Jim's hair."

"I've caught you at that a few times when he's been injured."

Jim was going to have to corner Leonard about that later.

Spock shifted slightly in that way that told Jim he was feeling a little too cold.

"You know you don't have to be the same as you were for him if you don't want that now."

"It is not that." Spock's fingers slipped across Jim's sleeve. "Would I have pulled him closer and allowed his head to rest on my shoulder?"

"If it was just you two or us three, then probably, yeah."

Jim had the urge to laugh as Spock deftly rearranged them.

Leonard did laugh for a moment before cutting himself off. "Yeah, something like that." He patted Jim's knee. "Jim will back off, so if you hit your touchy-feely limit all you have to do is let him know, alright?"

It sounded like Leonard was aiming that more at him than Spock, so Jim resolved to make sure he watched for Spock's tells even more closely than normal.

"I will remember, Doctor."

* * *

><p>Newly demoted to the rank he could do the most good at, Jim dropped to sit on his couch as Spock hovered near the door. "Come sit down, Spock."<p>

Spock moved closer and only hesitated for a few moments before settling next to Jim. "You do not appear upset to have lost rank."

Jim grinned. "No, not really." He happily sighed as Spock pulled him in against his side. "I get a new ship. I'm better with ships than I am with the politics of the Admiralty."

Spock ran his fingertips across Jim's shoulder. "I believe I have gained a new memory today."

"Oh?" Jim gratefully leaned against Spock and ran his thumb across the top of Spock's thigh. "What'd you remember?"

"You call our current activity 'snuggling' and said never to mention it in front of Dr. McCoy."

Jim laughed and nodded against Spock's shoulder as Spock relaxed little by little. "Yeah. I remember that conversation." He gently caught Spock's hand and entwined their fingers. "You still alright with snuggling, Mr. Spock?"

Spock tipped his head to rest against Jim. "I find that it is not an unpleasant activity."

"That's good." He resolved to remember to tell Leonard how lucky he felt to have gotten Spock back. Jim giggled to himself as Spock's thumb brushed back and forth over his own. "I missed you."

"You grieved for me."

"Yeah, I did." Jim wiggled to get more comfortable and if it got him closer to Spock that was just a bonus. "Try not to have to make me do it again."

"I will endeavor to stay by your side, Captain."

Jim smiled wide. "I know you will."


End file.
